LIVE REVIEW: Fight Like Apes @ KOKO

So I have been raving about these guys for a while and it seems like everyone else is just copping on to how good they really are.

Fight Like Apes (FLApes) played their biggest London headliner to date at Camden's Koko, a high profile venue with a capacity of around 1500. Not to shabby for a group that have worked their way up from empty back alley pubs.

OK OK... so the band are here as part of the weekly Club NME night and it's a Friday night with people wanting to rid themselves of their oppressive jobs, letting their hair down with the help of a pint or two.. or ten… so this was always going to be a good night.

Inside, the place fills up nicely with an even collection of guys and girls hopping and bouncing around the dance floor in anticipation for their entertainers of the night.

Support band LowLine impressed, wearing the obligatory black outfits for any indie act. At this point I was wondering if this was the best introduction to FLApes as this is definitely NOT 'FLApes style'.

But when Fight Like Apes take to the stage, the band's hyperactive, eccentric and slightly disturbing attack of synth, combined with the explosion of lead singer MayKay's vocals, the crowd go equally frantic.

When she sings 'Jake Summers', she is literally mobbed and an adequate mosh pit forms. Although this band isn't local - they hail from my hometown Dublin - the audience seem familiar with the lyrics, belting them violently back at their idols.
.
FLApes fierce cover of 'Lightsabre Cock Sucking Blues' by Mclusky does not disappoint and the gig climaxes with 'Lend Me Your Face', my fav FLApes tune, with song 'Battlestations' exploding in a screaming onstage fight and Pockets on synth childishly throwing his keyboards to the floor.

Fight Like Apes have fought hard to get themselves here (I think they still have the few bruises).

With their energetic debut album "Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion" out the same week ( NME mag gave them a whopping 7 in their album review) and a demanding tour in February 2009, world domination seems imminent…

L:)X